This invention relates generally to methods of manufacturing paintballs. More specifically, this invention relates to a method for manufacturing paintballs having improved characteristics and lower cost.
Paintball is a sport in which opposing individuals or teams attempt to eliminate their opponents by marking them with paint-filled projectiles (“paintballs”) fired from pneumatic markers (or “paintball guns”). Modern paintballs are dye-filled gelatin capsules approximately 0.68 inches in diameter. The dye is typically a colored vegetable oil or similar substance that can be washed from the clothes and body of the players.
Conventional methods of manufacturing paintballs include the use of rotating dies (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,318,718) and injection molding (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,951). Paintballs manufactured according to these methods generally include a seam around the circumference of the paintball. This seam can result in a poor fit between the paintball and a barrel used to launch the paintball. The seam can also result in poor flight characteristics for the paintball when launched from the barrel. The diameters of paintballs manufactured according to these conventional methods are also frequently inconsistent ball to ball. Conventional paintball manufacturing techniques are also fairly expensive. Paintballs today generally cost around five cents or more per paintball. As the sport has evolved, players are able to shoot paintballs more rapidly and may expend as many as 2,000 or more paintballs in a single fifteen-minute game. For these reasons, and others, it is therefore desirable to have a method of making paintballs that results in a more consistent paintball size and shape and that also results in a less expensive paintball.